Scotland's economy stands above pre-recession peak

EDINBURGH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Scotland's economy has grown past its pre-recession peak to a new record level with a 1 percent increase during the first quarter of 2014, showed latest statistics on Wednesday.

Covering the period January to March, the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics announced by Scotland's Chief Statistician showed that total output in the economy grew by 1 percent compared to previous quarter.

Output in Scotland is now 0.4 percent above its pre-recession level, while the British figure for the first quarter was still 0.6 percent below pre-recession levels, according to the statistics.

Moreover, employment in Scotland increased by 76,000 over the year to reach a record 2,587,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to Britain's Office for National Statistics.

Employment in Scotland has now increased over the quarter for 17 consecutive monthly releases, the longest ever unbroken run of increasing quarterly employment.

Scotland's employment rate now records at 73.3 percent, compared to Britain's 73.1 percent as a whole.

The female employment level also reached a record high of 1,249,000. Scotland has a higher female employment rate of 69.7 percent, against Britain's 68.1 percent as a whole.

Overall, the unemployment rate has fallen by 0.6 percentage points over the year and by 1 percentage points over the last two years, showed the latest statistics.